MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has apologized to Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario over his recent remarks over the arbitral ruling in the South China Sea dispute.
The Defense chief drew criticisms for calling the July 12, 2016 arbitral ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration an "empty victory" for the Philippines.
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"I sincerely apologize to these two great gentlemen for ruffling their feelings when I said that the PCA ruling in our favor is an empty victory," Lorenzana said in a statement released Friday.
Lorenzana added that it was not his intention to denigrate Carpio and Del Rosario's achievement in arguing the country's position before the United Nations-backed tribunal.
'Premature, incomplete'
The secretary clarified that his "empty victory" comment did not refer to the efforts of the two but rather to the outcome of the ruling, which the Duterte administration set aside in exchange for warmer ties with China.
"With the realities on the ground, the victory being claimed is premature and incomplete since the ruling has no enforcement mechanism. How can victory be claimed over an arbitration case that proceeded even if the other party declined to participate, having stated from the beginning that it will not abide by the arbitration’s outcome?" Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana also said that Carpio is "reading a lot" into the United States' freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea as they are not conducting the operations to enforce the arbitral ruling.
The US and other countries have been conducting FONOPs in the disputed waterway long before the arbitral ruling came out two years ago.
"In truth, those countries have been conducting FONOPS long before the PCA ruling was promulgated and they will continue to do so with or without it in order to protect their own national interests by maintaining free and unimpeded passage for both their merchant and navy ships through the SCS," he said.
He added that the landmark ruling will remain a "piece of paper" until it is fully enforced as the country has not yet regained full control of its exclusive economic zone.
"Not telling the people the real situation on the ground vis-a-vis the PCA ruling and pretending that it is a victory is grossly misleading, and gives our people false hopes," the Defense secretary said.
Echoing the previous pronouncements of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, Lorenzana stressed that the Philippines did not lose any territory in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) under the Duterte administration.
The nine Philippine-controlled islands before the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff are still occupied by Filipinos, he said.
"What the Chinese actually reclaimed are artificial structures which did not exist prior to the [Scarborough Shoal] incident," Lorenzana said.
Justifying Duterte's policy toward China, Lorenzana said the president is using renewed relations with Beijing for the benefit of the Filipino people.
"While the past and present administrations differ in their approaches in pursuing the same national interest, prudence dictates that diplomacy is still the better strategy to advance our country's interests in the WPS," the secretary said.
Following President Rodrigo Duterte's third State of the Nation Address earlier this week, Del Rosario urged the administration to "cast aside their fear of displeasing China."
Del Rosario, who led the Philippines in the arbitration against China, reiterated that the Duterte government should listen to Filipinos and not the Chinese ambassador.
“In this fight for what is right and in defense against an unlawful aggressor who is out to demolish the rule of law, raise tension and create chaos, we must have faith in our friends, our allies and the resilient spirit of the Filipino people,” Del Rosario said.